Diane Lane Is a Lane Changer

A producer of the new documentary "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" asked Diane Lane to help expose the abuse of women in Somaliland, she leapt at the chance. Here, the Oscar-nominated actress talks about what she learned, the newly empty nest she shares with husband Josh Brolin and the difficult childhood that led to her extraordinary career

by Margot Dougherty

Photograph: Peggy Sirota

Until now, much of Lane’s charity work has been done quietly, but this fall, with the airing of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, she seems poised to ramp up the public aspect. In September she’ll host an L.A. fund raiser for Heifer International. “It’s the most rewarding thing to do with my time now,” she says. A few days later she opens in a production of Tennessee Williams’s Sweet Bird of Youth at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and next year will appear as Superman’s mother in the movie Man of Steel. She’s also contemplating a theater project in New York. “Hey! Some people I love are in New York!” she says brightly, imagining a reunion with the departed children. “I can be, like, nearby . . . I’d be out of their hair, but available!”